Door operator mechanism



Oct. 22, 1968 Filed Dec. 22. 1966 R. E. ATKEY ETAL DOOR OPERATORMECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet l RICHARD E. ATKEY 8 BY LAWRENCE' E JASEPH l, iTw.)

heir ATTORNEYS Oct. 22, 1968 R, E ATKEY ETAL 3,406,484

DOOR OPERATOR MECHAN I SM Filed Dec. 22, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTORS. RICHARD E. ATKEY 8| LAWRENCE F. JASEPHv Y @@wm@ theirATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,406,484 DOOR OPERATOR MECHANISMRichard Edwin Atkey and Lawrence Flower .laseph, Memphis, Tenn.,assignors to Dover Corporation, Memphis, Tenn., a corporation ofDelaware Filed Dec. 22, 1966, Ser. No. 609,705 13 Claims. (Cl. 49-363)The present invention relates to powered operators for doors and thelike and, more particularly, to novel and improved means for controllingthe stroke of the door operator and for facilitating manual operation ofa horizontally sliding door normally power operated.

Various forms of electrically powered door operators for horizontallysliding doors have been known and used for many years, for example, inpassenger elevators and especially with passenger elevators intended tobe operated by passengers without an attendant. With door operators ofthis type, it is desirable to have a mechanism which accelerates thedoor or doors smoothly from rest at the respective full-closed orfull-Open positions, traverses the door at a reasonably uniform speed,at least in the central part of the door travel, and brings the door ordoors smoothly to rest in the opposite limit of travel.

While elevator car doors and door openings are generally of relativelystandard dimension, it is desirable to be able to suitably adjust thetravel of the doors, such as by a relatively simple adjustment of thestroke of the door operator. Further, it is necessary, especially in thecase of passenger operated elevators without an attendant, that thedoors can be manually opened when power has been removed from thepowered operator, even though the doors are fully closed and theoperating crank or arm is in a dead-center position.

These and other advantages and improvements in powered door operatorsmay be provided in accordance with the invention by the combination ofan elongated rigid operator arm pivotally mounted at a suitable point onthe car frame, a slider arm slidably mounted on the operator arm, and adriving element pivotally coupled to the slider arm for controlling theangular displacement of the operator arm and thereby the position of thedoor.

For a complete understanding of the invention, reference may be had tothe following detailed description taken in conjunction with the figuresof the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic elevational view of an elevator cab providedwith a door operator mechanism in accordance with the invention; and

FIG. 2 is an enlarged View of the door operator mechanism of FIG. 1showing a portion of the door and track and omitting parts which are notessential to a full and complete understanding of the invention.

In FIG. 1, a sliding horizontally movable door 10, shown in the closedposition against a jamb 11, is supported by conventional roller hangers12 from a suitable horizontal track bar 14 carried by a header 15 from afront support for the elevator cab ceiling (not shown). A return panel16 closes the front of the cab except for the door opening. The bottomof the door is suitably guided in a conventional groove in a sill 18.The entire cab may be conventionally supported on a safety plank 19spanning a pair of Stiles 20 connected by a cross-head 21, to whichhoisting ropes (not shown) may be conventionally attached. The powereddoor operator 22 is preferably mounted on the header 15, but may besuitably mounted on any convenient structural frame members. When thedoor is opened, it moves to the left (in FIG. 1) in front of the returnpanel 16, leaving an opening which is aligned with like openings in thehoistway.

In FIG. 2, a driving element for the powered door operator includes adrive wheel 30 is suitably mounted on ice a shaft 31. The drive wheel 30is driven by a conventional toothed rubber belt 32 from a smaller sheave34, which may be driven either directly or through suitable stages ofspeed reduction by a selectively controllable power means 35, such as aconventional reversible electric drive motor.

A carrier 36 is clamped by suitable screws 38 and 39 to the side of thedrive wheel 30, the screws 38 and 39 being spaced radially from theshaft 31, the axis of which defines a fixed reference point. The screw38 passes through an arcuate slot 40 in the carrier 36 radially spacedfrom the screw 39, thereby facilitating the selective angulardisplacement of the carrier 36 on the drive wheel 30.

A stud 41 ixedly mounted on and protruding from a central point on thecarrier 36 pivotally supports a drive link means 42. The drive linkmeans 42 is maintained in a predetermined fixed angular relation to thedrive wheel 30 by suitable resilient spring means 45 anchored at one endto an extension of the screw 39, and at its other end to a stud 43positioned intermediate the respective ends of the drive link means 42.The spring means 45 firmly urges an intermediate contact portion of thedrive link means 42 against a rigid stop 44 protruding from the face ofthe carrier 36.

Motive forces are applied to the door 10 from the power means 35 throughthe driving element 30 by an operator arm 46 which is pivoted at itsupper end about a fixed stud 48 supported by the car frame at a suitableposition defining a fixed reference point. A slider element 49, whichmay be of any suitable form, partially encircles the operator arm 46. Anend of the drive link means 42, opposite to that pivotally connected tothe carrier stud 41, is pivotally mounted at point 50 on the sliderelement 49.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the drive wheel 30 is shown in its mostcounter-clockwise position. When the door 10 is opened, the drive wheel30 rotates clockwise approximately 270 to provide maximum door travel.

The lower end of the operator arm 46 is pinned at point i 51 to asuitable drag link 52 which is pivotally connected to the sliding door10 by means of the door hanger 12. At full stroke, the operator arm 46will swing to the left approximately providing a 3:1 reduction inangular velocity between the drive wheel 30 and the operator arm 46.

As indicated in FIG. 2, a radial dotted line from the center of theshaft 31 to the center of the pivot point 50 makes a right angle withthe center line of the operator arm 46, so that the mechanism is ondead-center at its extreme of travel (the door fully closed). If it f isnecessary to open the door manually when the door 10 is in thisposition, and when no power 'is applied to the power means 35, a manualforce may be applied to move the door 10 to the left (FIG. 2). Thisforce will tend to move the pivot point 50 downwardly to the left aboutthe carrier stud 41. This action by itself does not produce a momentabout the center of the shaft 31, but as the drive link means 42 rotatesabout the reference point at the carrier stud 41, the spring means 45 isextended at least until a contact portion of the drive link means 42meets a centrally located stop 54 on the carrier 36. With the springmeans 45 extended, there is a substantial moment arm tending to turn thedrive wheel 30. Under these conditions, the drive wheel 30 does in factturn clockwise, rotating its driving mechanism in the same sense andovercoming the dead-center condition.

When the door 10 is fully open, the mechanism is in its extreme lefthand position, and the door starts to close, any friction of the sliderelement 49 against the operator arm 46 will tend to rotate the drivelink means 42 away from the stop 44. Therefore, the spring means 45 mustbe sufficient to prevent rotation `of the drive link means 42 duringnormal acceleration ofthe door under the control'ofthe door operatormechanism. l The parts of the door operator mechanism may be arranged insuch a manner las to be capable of being assembled for either hand'ofdoor operation. In particular, the carrier 36 is symmetrical about itscenter line which passes through the carrier stud 41 and has a secondstop 56 adapted to contact the drive link means 42 when assembled forthe opposite hand of door operation.

Conventional limit switches and motor control contacts may beincorporated in the door operator mechanism, as shown, for example, inUnited States Patent No. 2,998,245. Such limit switchesare opened byrotation of the drive wheel 30. While the position for full closure doesnot change when the stroke is reduced by adjusting the relative positionof the carrier stud 41 on the drive wheel with respect to the axis ofthe shaft 31 by means of the adjustment screw 38 and the arcuate slot 40in the carrier 36, the full-open position does change and the limitswitch operation must be suitably adjusted` When thel stroke of the,operator arm 46 is adjusted from the position shown in FIG. 2, theangular velocity ra-tio between the drive wheel 30 and the operator arm46 changes somewhat. For example, when the stroke is halved, th'eoperator arm .46 swings through only about 45 instead of 90, and thedrive wheel 30 will rotate through 225, giving a reduction in angularvelocity of 5:1 instead of 3:1 obtained at full s-troke.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, it is desirable to fix oneextreme position of the drive wheel 30, permitting the other extremeposition to be adjusted when the stroke of the operator arm is changed.This preferred arrangement may be obtained when the radial distancebetweencenters of the shaft 31 and the screw 39 is onehalf the distancebetween the centers of the shaft 31 and the fixed stud 48. The preferreddistance from the center of the .screw 39 to the pivot point 50 is equalto the distance between the centers of the shaft 31 and the screw 39,thereby insuring that the angle at the pivot 50 subtended by points atthe centers 48 and 31 will be a right angle, even when the carrier 36 isadjusted to a short stroke when at the end of the stroke (dead center).

Thus there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a novel andimproved door operator mechanism in which the stroke of the operator armmay be readily adjusted on installation of the door operator mechanismto satisfy the requirements of a particular building without substantialchange in the character of the operator arm motion, and a simple anddependable release mechanism facilitates manual movement of the doorfrom a fully closed position without power.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the disclosedembodiment is meant to be merely exemplary, and that it is susceptibleof modification and variation without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention. Thus the invention is not deemed to be limited,except as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a powered operator for doors and the like adapted to selectivelymove a door between a plurality of different positions relative to aframe, the combination comprising an elongatedrigid operator armpivotally mounted about a first fixed reference point on the frame andhaving an end spaced apart from said first fixed reference point andcoupled to the door for controlling the position of the door as afunction of the angular displacement of said operator arm about saidfirst fixed reference point, a slider element slidably mounted on saidoperator arm for sliding engagement therewith intermediate said firstfixed reference point and said operator arm end, and a driving elementadapted to be rotatably driven about a second fixed reference pointspaced a predetermined distance from said first fixed reference point,said driving element being pivotally coupled 4 to said' sliderelementfor` controlling the angular displacement of said operator arm.

2. In a powered operator for doors and the like adapted to selectivelymove a door between a plurality of different positions relative to aframe, the combination comprising an elongated rigid operator armpivotally mounted about a first fixed reference point on the frame andhaving an end spaced apart from said first fixed reference point andcoupled to the door for controlling the position of the door as afunction of the angular displacement of said operator arm about saidfirst fixed reference point, a slider element slidably mounted on saidoperator arm for sliding engagement therewith intermediate said firstfixed reference point and said operator arm end, a driving elementadapted to be rotatably driven about a second fixed reference pointspaced a predetermined distance from said firstV fixed reference point,and a drive link means having one end pivotally mounted on said drivingelement about a third reference point on said driving element spacedradially from said second fixed reference point and an opposite endpivotally mounted on said slider element.

3. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 2, further comprisingmeans for maintaining said drive link means ina fixed angular relationto said driving element about said third reference point.

4. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 3, wherein said drivelink maintaining means comprises a stop on saidn driving element, andmeans for selectively holding a portion of said'drive linkl means spacedapart from said third reference point in bearing relation against saidstop.

5. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 4, wherein said holdingmeans comprises a resilient spring means having one end coupled to apoint on said driving element and an opposite end coupled to a point onsaid drive link means spaced apart from said third reference Oint. p 6.A powered door operator as claimed in claim 2, further comprising meansfor selectively adjusting the position of said third reference point onsaid driving element relative to said second fixed reference point fordetermining the amount of stroke of the door operator.

7. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 2, wherein said drivingelement comprises a wheel rotatably mounted about a shaft fixed relativeto the frame, and power operated means are provided for rotating saiddriving element wheel to control door movement.

8. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 2, further comprisingmeans for releasably maintaining said drive link means in a fixedangular relation to said driving element about said third referencepoint to provide positive door operation under the control of saiddriving element and for facilitating angular displacement of said drivelink means relative to said driving element about said third referencepoint upon manual movement of the door.

9. A powered operator 'for elevator doors and the like adapted to beslidably moved between a fully closed and a fully open position within adoor frame, comprising an elongated rigid operator arm pivotally mountedabout a first fixed reference lpoint on the frame and having an endspaced apart from said first fixed reference point and coupled to thedoor for controlling the position of the door as a function of theangular displacement of said operator arm about said first fixedreference point, a slider element slidably mounted on said operator armfor sliding engagement therewith intermediate said first fixed referencepoint and said operator arm end, a drive wheel rotatably mounted about asecond fixed reference point on the frame spaced a predetermineddistance from said first fixed reference point, selectively controllablepower means for rotatably driving said drive wheel, and drive link meanshaving one end mounted on said drive wheel at a third referencev pointspaced radially from said second fixed reference point and an oppositeend pivotally mounted on said slider element.

10. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 9, further comprisingmeans for pivotally mounting said one end of said drive link means aboutsaid third reference point on said drive wheel, and means forymaintaining said drive link means ina predetermined xed angularrelation to said drive lwheel about said third reference point.

11. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 9, further comprisingmeans for selectively positoning said third reference point on saiddrive wheel to adjust the stroke of the door operator.

12. A powered door operator as claimed in claim 9, further comprising acarrier pivotally mounted on said drive wheel having a stud mountedthereon dening said third reference point and adapted to pivotallyreceive said one end of said drive link means, said carrier stud beingspaced from the axis of rotation of said carrier relative to said drivewheel, said drive link means having a contact portion spaced from saidthird reference point, xed stop means mounted on said carrier and spacedapart from said carrier stud for engaging said drive link means contactportion, spring means having oneend xed relative to said drive wheel andanother end attached to said drive link means at a point spacedfrom'said third reference point for releasably maintaining said drivelink means contact portion in engagement with said fixed stop means andfor applying a force to return said drive link means contact portion toengagement with said xed stop means upon displacement therefrom when thedoor is manually moved in overriding relation to the powered operator.

13. A powered operator as claimed in claim 12, further comprising meansfor selectively adjusting the pivotal position of said carrier relativeto said drive wheel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,707,648 4/1929 Turner et al.187-52 1,810,942 6/1931 Brady 187-52 1,863,417 6/1932 Shonnard 187-523,302,335 2/1967 Werner 49-363 DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner.

J. K. BELL. Assistant Examiner.

1. IN A POWERED OPERATOR FOR DOORS AND THE LIKE ADAPTED TO SELECTIVELYMOVE A DOOR BETWEEN A PLURALITY OF DIFFERENT POSITIONS RELATIVE TO AFRAME, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING AN ELONGATED RIGID OPERATOR ARMPIVOTALLY MOUNTED ABOUT A FIRST FIXED REFERENCE POINT ON THE FRAME ANDHAVING AN END SPACED APART FROM SAID FIRST FIXED REFERENCE POINT ANDCOUPLED TO THE DOOR FOR CONTROLLING THE POSITION OF THE DOOR AS AFUNCTION OF THE ANGULAR DISPLACEMENT OF SAID OPERATOR ARM ABOUT SAIDFIRST FIXED REFERENCE POINT, A SLIDER ELEMENT SLIDABLY MOUNTED ON SAIDOPERATOR ARM FOR SLIDING ENGAGEMENT THEREWITH INTERMEDIATE SAID FIRSTFIXED REFERENCE POINT AND SAID OPERATOR ARM END, AND A DRIVING ELEMENTADAPTED TO BE ROTATABLY DRIVEN ABOUT A SECOND FIXED REFERENCE POINTSPACED A PREDETERMINED DISTANCE FROM SAID FIRST FIXED REFERENCE POINT,SAID DRIVING ELEMENT BEING PIVOTALLY COUPLED TO SAID SLIDER ELEMENT FORCONTROLLING THE ANGULAR DISPLACEMENT OF SAID OPERATOR ARM.